It must take some nerve to open a venture like the Real Eating Company just down the street from Bill’s Produce Store, but nerve is something that the owner Helena Hudson has in spades. After moving from London to Brighton and leaving her life in advertising behind, she spotted a gap in the market for the kind of produce and food that was available in London. So the Real Eating Company was born, in 2004, part café-restaurant, part-deli, bakery, foodstore and wine shop. The chef who set up the menu was Cass Titcombe, (now of Canteen), and the restaurant soon went on to garner critical acclaim. With the opening of Hudson’s second, £525k site, in the pretty village of lewes, East Sussex, last November, her audacity is on display once more in the person of head chef Darren Velvick – ex-head chef of petrus. Even considering Hudson’s acumen, however, what would have drawna Gordon Ramsey Group chef away from the bright lights, competition and Michelin stars of the capital’s fine dining scene?
The short answer is family. He and his partner Tracy, were looking for a pub to buy in the Sevenoaks area, but found that securing one would take all their funds and offer no security. “I looked after my son for eight months, which was great after seven years at Gordon Ramsey Holdings” says Velvick. “Then I met Helena, and I liked what she had to say. After the regime I’d been in before, the attitude to food seemed young and enthusiastic."
"I’d already started going for interviews at country house hotels, which seemed stuffy and old-fashioned – you don’t want to upset the clientele there.” So, Velvick took the job at the Real Eating Company, were the site was already under construction, but spent the first month at the Hove site “seeing what they do".
Velvick is now in charge of the food for the whole operation, and although he didn’t want to change much, he has come up with some innovations, such as the ‘promotion menu’, served on Tuesdays and Wednesdays with two courses for £12 and three for £15. And this is where Velvick’s experience in fine dining, combined with the local supplies in rural, coastal Sussex really forge a force to be reckoned with.
"The suppliers here keep you up-to-date with what is going on. In London, they didn’t have the time” says Velvick. “At 7am I get my fish supplier on the phone from the quayside – it’s the same supplier we used at Petrus but I didn’t even realise they were based here – and he’ll tell me what he has, so I get to choose from his catch".
Also remaining from his years at Gordon Ramsey is his perfectionism and ways of working. “When I went to the Hove kitchen you couldn’t see who was doing what” he says. “So I said – you do starters, you do mains – and straight away you get a smooth service. Chefs have a standard inside them” he explains “but I am very happy with what I am doing here. If standards were slipping, if we had to buy cheaper ingredients, I’d be unhappy but I’m proud to say that Helena is as happy with the standards as I am”.
The differences with his past could not be more marked however. “I quite liked having sommeliers at Petrus” Velvick says. “but that is the problem with a place like that – you’re spoilt. It takes balls to break away from that kind of elegance. Not many chefs have done what I have done – taken a massive pay cut to go back on the stove, slogging their guts out. But then, they don’t get to cook a puffball from the local forest that’s the size of one and a half footballs".
"The denizens of Brighton and Hove now have somewhere suitably swanky to do the food shop. The Real Eating Company opens this month and stocks only the best, and a 35 seater restaurant serves lunches, juices and snacks, such as 'buttery Marmite sandwiches'. Genius."
Helena Hudson set up the Real Eating Company in Hove after moving to Brighton from London and deciding there was a gap in the market for a high-quality food retailer. Three years on and the influx of organic and specialist food retailers appears to have supported Hudson’s notion. But consumers never forget a trailblazer and her store was last year voted one of the UK’s best retailers by readers of the Observer. The Real Eating Company, which includes a restaurant, is a haven for all things local. The majority of its products are British. Its cheeses come from Neal’s Yard Dairy and products are sourced as locally as possible.
The company has recently expanded. A second store opened in the nearby town of Lewes in November and a coffee shop in Horsham opened its doors six months ago. The Lewes store has been the company’s biggest challenge – the town already has two other specialist food shops and a large Tesco and Waitrose. But Hudson insists: “There is clearly enough business to go around”. Nothing demonstrates this more than the booming sales of Spanish pata negra ham. It sells for £12.50 for 100g.
Juicy Guides: Brighton & Hove - "A good lunch"
Finally Brighton and Hove can call itself a city. This brand new Food Emporium is the kind you'll find in New York or Melbourne, with two floors of the best food money can buy served in the deli, on a plate in the restaurant or given away as a promotion by one of Sussex's many food producers. Chef, Cass Titcombe has been poached from The Tin Drum, Hove (which spotted him first in the earliest and best incarnation of Blanch House). At weekends, it's heaving with foodies settling in for the day and tucking into an Eggs Benedict (£7) or an Arbroath Smokie (£8) and thinking of moving in.
Food and Travel Magazine - "Really Really Good"
"The denizens of Brighton and Hove now have somewhere suitably swanky to do the food shop. The Real Eating Company opens this month and stocks only the best, and a 35 seater restaurant serves lunches, juices and snacks, such as 'buttery Marmite sandwiches'. Genius."
